Manchester United 0-0 Valencia CF: 5 Talking Points & Tactical Analysis 

#2 Valencia looked out of depth near the box:

The Portuguese could not provide the required crosses

Marcelino Torel’s side is undergoing a difficult season in the La Liga so far. Valencia are currently placed in the 14th position on the table. Moreover, they have scored only five goals and that pattern continued in this match too.

Despite having two insanely talented forwards in Rodrigo and Michy Batshuayi, the whole team failed to provide an adequate, consistent supply line throughout the game. Parejo usually sets the tempo from the midfield but even he failed to click against Pogba and resorted to committing silly, unnecessary fouls in order to stop the Frenchman on the run.

Guedes made the appropriate runs from the left flank, but his deliveries inside the box were extremely underwhelming.

His crosses failed to reach Batshuayi, who is incidentally fairly good header of the ball. Rodrigo drifted wide, tried to stretch the backline but Bailly’s solidarity ensured that they couldn’t notch a goal. Chris Smalling cleared the ball four times and United’s centre-back partnership looked relatively more assured.

However, Valencia’s threat from the right flank was neutralized by Luke Shaw who had a splendid game from a defensive perspective too.

When United blocked any possible passage to deliver a testing pass inside the box, Valencia clearly looked out of ideas. Maybe they lacked a definite creative acumen on the field. However, the Spanish side tried to compensate that through the athleticism of Denis Cheryshev and Carlos Soler.

That didn’t pan out well either and Rodrigo’s lack of ruthlessness in front of the goal summed up to Valencia C.F being unable to score a goal at all.